Assessment of Indian cooking practices and cookwares on nutritional security: A review

Abstract

Food provides us nutrients and the energy required for growth, reproduction, and maintenance. Energy is required to perform all voluntary and involuntary activities like digestion, respiration, circulation, carrying out professional, household and recreational activities. Despite having rich food diversity, we are using only a few items as our staple food. With the adoption of eastern cooking practices and cookwares, risk of both pre-and post-transitional diseases like diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, malnutrition, obesity, etc. has increased significantly. Aluminium toxicity and nutrients breakdown has become a common problem in pressure cooking. To overcome this problem, it is important to shift from the modernized cooking methods to our traditional cooking practices, i.e., use of earthen cookwares, clay pots and some selected metal utensils, e.g., copper, iron, brass, etc. It has been shown that earthen, copper, iron, and soapstone cookwares do not leach toxic trace elements into the food and enhance the sensory qualities without decreasing the food nutrients. Adoption of traditional Indian cooking practices (such as fermentation, roasting, germination, etc.), cookwares (such as earthen, copper, iron, soapstone, etc.) and increasing the consumption of healthy diet grains like millets, etc. can easily combat the pre- and post-transition health problems in India, effectively. This review would provide a deep understanding to the people to decide the best cookware and cooking processes that will improve their health and provide ample nutritional value to them.

Comparative Nutritional Assessment of Millet-Based Milk Produced by Ultrasound, Germination, and a Combined Approach

“…Germination is an effective and low-cost method that is used to increase the phytase enzyme release to break the phytic acid web and release the minerals present in a plant food web . Tannin and phytate occur naturally in plants and act as antinutrients.…”

“…Tannin forms complexes with proteins, making them less bioavailable, and depletes amino acid depletion . Germination increases the mineral bioavailability of food and in vitro antioxidant activity as a result of the increase in GABA, phenolic, and flavonoid content. , Shunmugapriya et al reported that germination decreases the antinutrient concentration manifold and enhances the protein and starch digestibility. Milk extracted from germinated millets was found to be comparable to commercially available plant-based nondairy milk with respect to appearance and overall acceptability .…”

“…Germination is an effective and low-cost method that is used to increase the phytase enzyme release to break the phytic acid web and release the minerals present in a plant food web. 19 Tannin and phytate occur naturally in plants and act as antinutrients. Phytate has a negative charge; it attracts or binds to positively charged calcium, iron, magnesium, etc., making them less bioavailable.…”

“…Millets are rich in minerals that too with some antinutrients like tannins and phytate present in a complex food web. 19 Phytates are mineral chelators that reduce the bioavailability of minerals, whereas tannins reduce protein digestion. 20 Among the different milk extraction methods from vegetable resources, ultrasound and germination processes have a significant impact on the physiochemical property of the final product.…”

“…Millets are rich in minerals that too with some antinutrients like tannins and phytate present in a complex food web . Phytates are mineral chelators that reduce the bioavailability of minerals, whereas tannins reduce protein digestion .…”